Of Mutants and Men

[10]

         Calling Caliban to inform him of the recent events earned her an earful. He screamed at her for five minutes straight and her ear nearly bled but his words were true. Angelika had lived in the shadows for so long and now she was taking a step into the light.

"Do you even realise that you're walking straight towards an incoming storm? Angelika, breaking into an illegal facility and breaking into the Pentagon are very different. If Stryker ever finds out, he'll do everything in his power to drag you into one of his facilities," Caliban spoke with rage in his voice, breathing harshly. "Do you ever use your brain before you do something reckless? You promised to consult me before taking any rash decision!"

"Our future is at stake," Angelika argued, "Should I just sit and wait till humans hunt us down like animals?"

He snorted. "You're really believing that whole I-come-from-the-future bullshit? He could very well be a member of the Brotherhood who just wants to break Erik out!"

"I read his mind, Caliban." Her heart clenched painfully in guilt. "I flipped the switch." Silence ensued and Angelika dreaded the worse. Losing Caliban would be like losing all of her limbs and senses — he was the only constant in her fragile reality.

"I was afraid this might happen, you know? Do you know what I feared when I first heard of Erik? I worried that you might go running to him and join the Brotherhood. You were always irrational when it came to him. Do you remember when he got punched by Big Yves for insulting his sister? And you went to his house and blew up the fuse box? You didn't care if Erik was in the right or wrong. You only focused on him being injured."

"You're not wrong, Caliban. My resolution grows weak when it comes to Erik. Despite what he did to me, to us, he's- he's still Erik. But I promise you that this isn't about him, it's for the greater good."

"So will you be able to turn your back on him once all of this is over?"

Angelika reached for the bottle of cheap bourbon in her sock drawer and quickly unscrewed the cap. She drank greedily from it, hoping the buzzing headache would pass. After flipping the switch to read Logan's mind, she had her telepathy back permanently. The voices came back full force, some screeching inside her mind. Her temperature increased as if her body was fighting against a virus; the more she struggled to quiet them down, the more she sweated.

It was Caliban's concoction that kept her telepathy dormant all this years and now she was suffering from the side-effects. When the telepath checked herself in the mirror, she nearly screamed. Her skin was pale, glistening with perspiration, dark circles drooping under her eyes which were bloodshot. She looked like a zombie, a sick one at that.

Regardless of her poor condition, Angelika pushed through and elaborated quite a decent plan to free Erik from the ditch he was being held in. The silver-haired speedster — she learned his name was Peter — was a great asset because Hank, the bespectacled nerd, had fabricated the perfect device to override the Pentagon's security system and mess with their cameras and whatnot but they still needed someone to get to Erik. His speed would allow him to infiltrate without being seen.

Peter looked quite pleased to hear that he was a valuable player in this plan, eager to break into the most guarded place on Earth. 

"What about us," Logan asked, scratching his beard. "Where do we come in?"

"The elevator that leads to Erik's cell is situated inside the kitchen and it takes two men to operate the thing; there's a guard who is in charge of inserting the key to send the other one down and bring him back up. I have a friend of mine who can get me inside as a kitchen hand. You and Charles need to standby so that we can leave ASAP. If they start shooting at us, who knows what kind of stunt Erik will pull?"